Australia comprises a land area of almost 7.7 million square kilometres, located in the Southern Hemisphere near Indonesia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. It is an island nation that makes up the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and some other small islands.
Australia is considered a developed nation and it has the world's thirteenth largest economy. It is known for a high life expectancy, its education, quality of life, biodiversity and tourism.
It is a large country, its topography is not too varied and most of it consists of low desert plateau. There are, however, fertile plains in the southeast.
CLIMATE
Australia's climate is mostly arid to semiarid, but the south and east are temperate and the north is tropical. Although most of Australia is arid desert, it supports a wide range of diverse habitats, thus making it incredibly biodiverse. Alpine forests, tropical rainforests and a wide variety of plants and animals thrive there because of its geographic isolation from the rest of the world. As such, 85% of its plants, 84% of its mammals and 45% of its birds are endemic to Australia. It also has the greatest number of reptile species in the world as well as some of the most venomous snakes and other dangerous creatures like the crocodile. Australia is famous for its marsupial species, which include the kangaroo, koala and wombat.
MOUNTAINS
Australia is a very flat continent where the average elevation is just 330 metres, the lowest in the world. What Australia lacks in height is more that made up for in the variety, geological age and unique appearance of its mountains and rocky outcrops - some of the oldest and most interesting exposed rocks in the world.
Australia’s Big Rock – Uluru
Australia is ancient and it has some of the oldest geological features in the world. Its most famous rock of course is Uluru in the Northern Territory. Formerly named Ayers Rock, it covers an area of more than 3 square kilometers and nearly 10kms around the base. It rises 345 metres in height and is estimated to have been laid down around 500 million years ago in an inland sea.
Mount Kosciuszko
Mount Kosciuszko is the highest mountain in the Australian continent. It is not, however, the highest mountain on Australian territory. Mawson Peak on Heard Island, an Australian territory in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica and between Australia and Africa, is the highest peak in any state and territory in Australia. Mawson Peak, a snow-covered volcano, rises to 2,745 meters.
Mount Kosciuszko is the highest point of the Great Dividing Range, a long mountain range that runs along the entire eastern part of Australia from Queensland to Victoria. Kosciuszko itself straddles the border between North South Wales and Victoria. Glaciers chiseled out the mountain, leaving glacial features during the Pleistocene Epoch over 20,000 years ago.
Blue Mountains
The Greater Blue Mountains Area consists of 1.03 million ha of sandstone plateaux, escarpments and gorges dominated by temperate eucalypt forests. The site, comprised of eight protected areas, is noted for its representation of the evolutionary adaptation and diversification of the eucalypts in post-Gondwana isolation on the Australian continent. Ninety-one eucalypt taxa occur within the Greater Blue Mountains Area which is also outstanding for its exceptional expression of the structural and ecological diversity of the eucalypts associated with its wide range of habitats. The site provides significant representation of Australia's biodiversity with ten percent of the vascular flora as well as significant numbers of rare or threatened species, including endemic and evolutionary relict species, such as the Wollemi pine, which have persisted in highly-restricted microsites.
HYDROLOGY
Because much of Australia's interior is arid, the low average annual rainfall means interior rivers are often dry and lakes empty. The headwaters of some waterways are located in tropical regions where summer rains create a high rate of discharge. Flood events drastically alter the dry environment in which the ecology of central Australia has had to adapt .
The Great Artesian Basin is an important source of water, the world's largest and deepest fresh water basin. Access to water from the basin has led to the expansion of grazing into areas that were previously far too dry for livestock. Towns and cities across the country sometimes face major water shortage and usage crisis in which restrictions and other measures are implemented to reduce water consumption. Water restrictions are based on a gradient of activities that become progressively banned as the situation worsens.
The Cooper Creek
The Cooper Creek is a river in Australia, also known as Barcoo River, named after one of its tributaries, is one of three major river of the river system in Queensland that flows into Lake Eyre.With its 1300 km in length, the Cooper Creek is the second-longest navigable river in Australia.
The flow of the river is dependent on monsoon rains that fall months earlier and many hundreds of miles away, in eastern Queensland.
-West of Australia is the Indian Ocean and to the east is the Pacific Ocean.
-South of Tasmania and Australia's southern coastline is the Southern Ocean.
-North of Australia are the Timor and Arafura seas
-To the southeast, between Australia and New Zealand, is the Tasman Sea
-To the northeast is the Coral Sea.
Coastlines
The coastline of Australia , excluding its offshore islands ,stretches for 34,218km ,making it the world’s larghest island. Australia’s oceans cover more than 16 million km2, which is equal to more than double the area of the Australian continent itself. Australia’s waters span nearly 60 degrees in latitude from Torres Strait to Antartica, and 72 degrees in longitude from Cocos Island in the west to Norfolk Island in the east. They also encompass all five marine climatic zones: tropical (25 to 31ºc or 77 to 87.8ºF); subtropical (15 to 27ºc or 59 to 80.6ºF); temperate (10 to 25ºc or 50 to 77ºF); subpolar (5 to 10ºc or 25 to 50ºF); and polar (-2 to 5ºc or 28.4to 25ºF). Because of this, Australia’s seas boast a huge diversity of geologic and oceanographic features, including deep ocean basins, tropical coral reefs, temperate rocky reefs, submarine canyons, seagrass beds , mangroves, estuaries, and approximately 12,000 islands . Within this area live thousands of marine species, many of which are unique to Australia and all of which help make Australia the most biodiverse developed nation in the world.
Australia's marine plants and animals are extremely rich and are more diverse than the terrestrial species. There are more than 4500 species of fish and 500 corals. Extreme temperature influences, together with a 40-milion-year history of geographical and climatic isolation have led to the unique biological diversity in southern oceans where 80-90 percent of many groups are not found anywhere else in the world.There is also a wide range of marine habitats: the largest coral reefs in the world in the tropics of Queensland, the largest and most biodiverse seagrass beds on earth in the cooler south (containing 30 of the 58 species) and the Antarctic planktonic krill communities of the Southern Ocean.Coastal .
Aboriginal communities have been users and custodians of Australian's marine environment for 40 to 50,000 years, and the 6000 shipwrecks lying beneath Australian waters is a testament to Australia's more recent exploration and settlement.The major problems, which affect the world's oceans, are also present in Australia. They include:
-increasing threats from pollution
-population pressure and excessive fishing
-coastal zone degradation and climate change
-declining quality in marine habitat
-loss of marine and coastal habitat
-unsustainable use of marine and coastal resources
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the world's great natural wonders. It is the largest reef in the world and consists of nearly 3000 individual reefs, 880 islands and hundreds and thousands of different types of plants, birds and marine life. As the world’s most extensive coral reef ecosystem, the Great Barrier Reef is a globally outstanding and significant entity. Practically the entire ecosystem was inscribed as World Heritage in 1981, covering an area of 348,000 square kilometers and extending across a contiguous latitudinal range of 14o (10oS to 24oS). The Great Barrier Reef ( referred to as GBR) includes extensive cross-shelf diversity, stretching from the low water mark along the mainland coast up to 250 kilometers offshore.This wide depth range includes vast shallow inshore areas, mid-shelf and outer reefs, and beyond the continental shelf to oceanic waters over 2,000 meters deep.The form and structure of the individual reefs show great variety. Two main classes may be defined: platform or patch reefs, resulting from radial growth; and wall reefs, resulting from elongated growth, often in areas of strong water currents. There are also many fringing reefs where the reef growth is established on subtidal rock of the mainland coast or continental islands.The site includes major feeding grounds for the endangered dugong and nesting grounds of world significance for two endangered species of marine turtle, the green and the loggerhead, as well as habitat for four other species of marine turtle. Given the severe pressures being placed on these species elsewhere, the Great Barrier Reef may be their last secure stronghold. It is also an important breeding area for humpback and other whale species.A wide range of fleshy algae occurs, many of which are small and inconspicuous but which are highly productive and are heavily grazed by turtles, fish, mollusc and sea urchins. In addition, algae are an important component of reef building processes. 15 species of seagrass grow throughout the reef area forming over 3,000 km2 of seagrass meadows and providing an important food source for grazing animals, such as dugongs.
(Dugongs are large grey mammals which spend their entire lives in the sea)
GEOGRAPHY
Australia comprises a land area of almost 7.7 million square kilometres, located in the Southern Hemisphere near Indonesia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. It is an island nation that makes up the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and some other small islands.
Australia is considered a developed nation and it has the world's thirteenth largest economy. It is known for a high life expectancy, its education, quality of life, biodiversity and tourism.
It is a large country, its topography is not too varied and most of it consists of low desert plateau. There are, however, fertile plains in the southeast.
CLIMATE
Australia's climate is mostly arid to semiarid, but the south and east are temperate and the north is tropical. Although most of Australia is arid desert, it supports a wide range of diverse habitats, thus making it incredibly biodiverse. Alpine forests, tropical rainforests and a wide variety of plants and animals thrive there because of its geographic isolation from the rest of the world. As such, 85% of its plants, 84% of its mammals and 45% of its birds are endemic to Australia. It also has the greatest number of reptile species in the world as well as some of the most venomous snakes and other dangerous creatures like the crocodile. Australia is famous for its marsupial species, which include the kangaroo, koala and wombat.
MOUNTAINS
Australia is a very flat continent where the average elevation is just 330 metres, the lowest in the world. What Australia lacks in height is more that made up for in the variety, geological age and unique appearance of its mountains and rocky outcrops - some of the oldest and most interesting exposed rocks in the world.
Australia’s Big Rock – Uluru
Australia is ancient and it has some of the oldest geological features in the world. Its most famous rock of course is Uluru in the Northern Territory. Formerly named Ayers Rock, it covers an area of more than 3 square kilometers and nearly 10kms around the base. It rises 345 metres in height and is estimated to have been laid down around 500 million years ago in an inland sea.
Mount Kosciuszko
Mount Kosciuszko is the highest mountain in the Australian continent. It is not, however, the highest mountain on Australian territory. Mawson Peak on Heard Island, an Australian territory in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica and between Australia and Africa, is the highest peak in any state and territory in Australia. Mawson Peak, a snow-covered volcano, rises to 2,745 meters.
Mount Kosciuszko is the highest point of the Great Dividing Range, a long mountain range that runs along the entire eastern part of Australia from Queensland to Victoria. Kosciuszko itself straddles the border between North South Wales and Victoria. Glaciers chiseled out the mountain, leaving glacial features during the Pleistocene Epoch over 20,000 years ago.
Blue Mountains
The Greater Blue Mountains Area consists of 1.03 million ha of sandstone plateaux, escarpments and gorges dominated by temperate eucalypt forests. The site, comprised of eight protected areas, is noted for its representation of the evolutionary adaptation and diversification of the eucalypts in post-Gondwana isolation on the Australian continent. Ninety-one eucalypt taxa occur within the Greater Blue Mountains Area which is also outstanding for its exceptional expression of the structural and ecological diversity of the eucalypts associated with its wide range of habitats. The site provides significant representation of Australia's biodiversity with ten percent of the vascular flora as well as significant numbers of rare or threatened species, including endemic and evolutionary relict species, such as the Wollemi pine, which have persisted in highly-restricted microsites.
HYDROLOGY
Because much of Australia's interior is arid, the low average annual rainfall means interior rivers are often dry and lakes empty. The headwaters of some waterways are located in tropical regions where summer rains create a high rate of discharge. Flood events drastically alter the dry environment in which the ecology of central Australia has had to adapt .
The Great Artesian Basin is an important source of water, the world's largest and deepest fresh water basin. Access to water from the basin has led to the expansion of grazing into areas that were previously far too dry for livestock. Towns and cities across the country sometimes face major water shortage and usage crisis in which restrictions and other measures are implemented to reduce water consumption. Water restrictions are based on a gradient of activities that become progressively banned as the situation worsens.
The Cooper Creek
The Cooper Creek is a river in Australia, also known as Barcoo River, named after one of its tributaries, is one of three major river of the river system in Queensland that flows into Lake Eyre.With its 1300 km in length, the Cooper Creek is the second-longest navigable river in Australia.
The flow of the river is dependent on monsoon rains that fall months earlier and many hundreds of miles away, in eastern Queensland.
websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Australia (only hidrology)
http://www.kidport.com/reflib/worldgeography/australia/australia.htm
http://www.about-australia.com/facts/australia-geography/
http://geography.about.com/od/australiamaps/a/australia-geography.htm
Oceans
-West of Australia is the Indian Ocean and to the east is the Pacific Ocean.
-South of Tasmania and Australia's southern coastline is the Southern Ocean.
-North of Australia are the Timor and Arafura seas
-To the southeast, between Australia and New Zealand, is the Tasman Sea
-To the northeast is the Coral Sea.
Coastlines
The coastline of Australia , excluding its offshore islands ,stretches for 34,218km ,making it the world’s larghest island. Australia’s oceans cover more than 16 million km2, which is equal to more than double the area of the Australian continent itself. Australia’s waters span nearly 60 degrees in latitude from Torres Strait to Antartica, and 72 degrees in longitude from Cocos Island in the west to Norfolk Island in the east. They also encompass all five marine climatic zones: tropical (25 to 31ºc or 77 to 87.8ºF); subtropical (15 to 27ºc or 59 to 80.6ºF); temperate (10 to 25ºc or 50 to 77ºF); subpolar (5 to 10ºc or 25 to 50ºF); and polar (-2 to 5ºc or 28.4to 25ºF). Because of this, Australia’s seas boast a huge diversity of geologic and oceanographic features, including deep ocean basins, tropical coral reefs, temperate rocky reefs, submarine canyons, seagrass beds , mangroves, estuaries, and approximately 12,000 islands . Within this area live thousands of marine species, many of which are unique to Australia and all of which help make Australia the most biodiverse developed nation in the world.
From here
What lives in this sea?
Australia's marine plants and animals are extremely rich and are more diverse than the terrestrial species. There are more than 4500 species of fish and 500 corals. Extreme temperature influences, together with a 40-milion-year history of geographical and climatic isolation have led to the unique biological diversity in southern oceans where 80-90 percent of many groups are not found anywhere else in the world.There is also a wide range of marine habitats: the largest coral reefs in the world in the tropics of Queensland, the largest and most biodiverse seagrass beds on earth in the cooler south (containing 30 of the 58 species) and the Antarctic planktonic krill communities of the Southern Ocean.Coastal .
Aboriginal communities have been users and custodians of Australian's marine environment for 40 to 50,000 years, and the 6000 shipwrecks lying beneath Australian waters is a testament to Australia's more recent exploration and settlement.The major problems, which affect the world's oceans, are also present in Australia. They include:
-increasing threats from pollution
-population pressure and excessive fishing
-coastal zone degradation and climate change
-declining quality in marine habitat
-loss of marine and coastal habitat
-unsustainable use of marine and coastal resources
From here
The Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the world's great natural wonders. It is the largest reef in the world and consists of nearly 3000 individual reefs, 880 islands and hundreds and thousands of different types of plants, birds and marine life. As the world’s most extensive coral reef ecosystem, the Great Barrier Reef is a globally outstanding and significant entity. Practically the entire ecosystem was inscribed as World Heritage in 1981, covering an area of 348,000 square kilometers and extending across a contiguous latitudinal range of 14o (10oS to 24oS). The Great Barrier Reef ( referred to as GBR) includes extensive cross-shelf diversity, stretching from the low water mark along the mainland coast up to 250 kilometers offshore.This wide depth range includes vast shallow inshore areas, mid-shelf and outer reefs, and beyond the continental shelf to oceanic waters over 2,000 meters deep.The form and structure of the individual reefs show great variety. Two main classes may be defined: platform or patch reefs, resulting from radial growth; and wall reefs, resulting from elongated growth, often in areas of strong water currents. There are also many fringing reefs where the reef growth is established on subtidal rock of the mainland coast or continental islands.The site includes major feeding grounds for the endangered dugong and nesting grounds of world significance for two endangered species of marine turtle, the green and the loggerhead, as well as habitat for four other species of marine turtle. Given the severe pressures being placed on these species elsewhere, the Great Barrier Reef may be their last secure stronghold. It is also an important breeding area for humpback and other whale species.A wide range of fleshy algae occurs, many of which are small and inconspicuous but which are highly productive and are heavily grazed by turtles, fish, mollusc and sea urchins. In addition, algae are an important component of reef building processes. 15 species of seagrass grow throughout the reef area forming over 3,000 km2 of seagrass meadows and providing an important food source for grazing animals, such as dugongs.
(Dugongs are large grey mammals which spend their entire lives in the sea)From :(whc.unesco.org)
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